Carol Kyer believes in collaboration. With 15 years on the Lewisville Independent School District’s board of trustees and five of those as board president, Kyer and fellow board members worked with 13 separate communities to compromise in finding solutions to any issues dealing with students and the school district as a whole.
“You have to learn to work with people,” she said, “You have to be someone who is willing to sit down and discuss issues. … Everyone who comes to the table comes with a different background. It’s important to be willing to work together.”
It is a combination of those years of experience on the school board, time spent volunteering at schools as her three children grew up in the community, ongoing work with non-profits and being a resident of Flower Mound for 22 years that she wants to bring to the Flower Mound Town Council in the Place 5 seat being vacated by Jean Levenick. Her opponent in the upcoming May election will be Itamar Gelbman, an alternate on the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission.
“When we moved here, the population in Flower Mound was 18,000. Now it’s approaching 69,000 to 70,000,” Kyer said, adding the town has gone through several stages of development and is facing additional growth as it moves into southern Denton County.
“A lot of what is going on now has been in the works for years,” she said of the ongoing construction both in roadwork as well as the mixed-use developments such as Lakeside DFW and The River Walk at Central Park.
Preserving the town’s unique rural atmosphere is important, she says, but so is planning for the future. Town officials must make sure services and infrastructure are available as well as continue to diversify the town’s tax base so that it maintains steady growth in spite of economic downturns or upswings.
“It’s important as the town continues to grow to make sure it’s done the right way,” she said, adding that Flower Mound’s proximity to the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and having FM 2499 bisect the community as a major north/south feeder pretty much guarantee ongoing interest in developing in the town. “Growth is going to happen.”
Kyer married her husband, Mark, 28 years ago and together they raised two daughters and one son. The eldest, Elizabeth, is a pharmacist in Boston, Massachusetts; son Billy has one year left at the Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology where he is studying to become an instrumentation engineer; and the youngest, Brittany, is studying at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts where she is studying to become an environmental engineer.
All three of their children graduated from Flower Mound High School. During their years at Flower Mound schools, Kyer volunteered with Parent Teacher Associations as well as Girl Scouts. Today, she volunteers with Communities in Schools of North Texas and United Way of Denton County.
Kyer grew up in Bedford, Massachusetts and lived in New Hampshire before moving to Flower Mound.
“I’m pro-Flower Mound. I’m for what’s best for the town,” she said, adding that she has enjoyed the look and feel of the community with the Cross Timbers Conservation District and the rural elements it provides.
“It’s important to me that the town is preserved” for younger generations as well as existing residents and the older generations who have lived in the community for decades. “We need to keep it as much as we can but we can’t let the town go stagnant.
“It’s important to look at the present, but it’s also important to plan for the future,” she said.
Kyer also hopes to help residents become more aware of mental and social issues in the community such as a growing population of homeless teens, many of which find themselves “couch surfing” because of mental and social issues at home. Kyer said the council needs to be a proponent for non-profit organizations dealing with social issues to ensure help is available for residents in need.
As for issues relating to new projects being proposed, Kyer goes back to the central theme of her campaign.
Regardless of the proposed project – whether commercial or residential – to Kyer the key is the basic principal of collaboration.
“The people who live in town and the developers – all have to work in concert,” she said. “You have to make sure you listen and work in a way that all parties are happy.
